There is much hype among advocates about the meeting that Save Darfur’s Jerry Fowler and STAND’s Layla Amjadi are scheduled to have with Gen. Scott Gration and Samantha Power – a meeting that will be webstreamed in real time this coming Tuesday Nov. 10. STAND is giving advocates the opportunity to vote for what questions […]
Good result: Turkey buckles
November 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment
A quick update on a previous post. According to AFP, the Sudanese state media is reporting that Bashir has called Turkish President Gul to say he doesn’t have time to go to attend the Organization of the Islamic Conference scheduled for tomorrow. As the Sudan Tribune tells the story, Taha told Bashir that Israeli and […]
Audience questions from Pledge2Protect
November 8, 2009 by 2 Comments
I started off this morning with a Plenary session on Sudan at the Pledge2Protect conference in DC, with Michelle Gavin and Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah. The conference organizers had audience members submit questions for us on pieces of paper, which were to be asked out loud to us at the end. Regrettably we ran over, […]
Crowdpull: The growing influence of regional organizations
November 6, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Interesting little report here from Reuters that the EU is applying pressure on Turkey not to host Bashir next week. The signal coming from Ankara is that they will go ahead anyway, but this kind of en-masse pressure has a better shot of success than any bilateral pressure from a single European state could ever […]
Update
November 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Hi all I just arrived in the U.S. for a final month of interviews in D.C., and then a lot of sitting in front of the computer screen drafting. I got my first three chapters off to my editor for review over the weekend, which felt good – but there is a long haul ahead. […]
Abu Garda is in the dock, but he is not the only one under scrutiny
October 30, 2009 by 1 Comment
It has been a fascinating week at the ICC with the Confirmation Hearing in the Prosecution’s case against Darfur rebel leader, Abu Garda. The Prosecution is charging him with three counts of war crimes (murder, intentionally directing attacks against a peacekeeping mission, and pillaging) with respect to the 2007 attack on the African Union peacekeeping […]
Getting Congress focused on sexual violence against Darfuris
October 28, 2009 by Leave a Comment
A great effort underway by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today in D.C. They are giving a lunchtime briefing to Members of Congress on sexual violence against Darfuri women and girls. In the (unlikely) event that any members of Congress or their staffers are reading this, I urge you to attend.This issue is not covered […]
New security commission: A face-saver for Gosh, or something more sinister?
October 26, 2009 by Leave a Comment
In the ‘one to watch’ category, is a meeting that took place in Khartoum last week of a new governmental body called the National Security Consultancy Commission. The Sudan Tribune reports Bashir saying that the commission’s work is “to develop its work and seal coordination among them [the existing security agencies]”. The first meeting was […]
In the Totally Random Stuff category
October 26, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Not Sudan related, but a quick plug for a request from a friend who has done some wonderful Darfur advocacy work over the years and is currently a Teach for America teacher in a desperately under-resourced school in Mississippi. His students need books. If you are in a position to help, please read on
Panel of Experts: SGBV is “rampant” in Darfur
In what is surely the least surprising news of the month, the Sudanese government has rejected the Report of the UN Panel of Experts, released late last week. To my shame I am only reading it now. Not all the way through it yet, I stopped my reading to blog on the section I’ve just […]